Gütersloh/Berlin, 05/14/2020

Target Met, New Target Set: Thomas Rabe Doubles The Ante To €200,000

Subject: Corona, Society
Country: Germany
Category: Charitable Donations

In just two weeks, nearly 1,000 athletes covered close to 27,000 kilometers, raising €100,000 for Berlin’s street kids in the process. Now Thomas Rabe has extended his Twitter Fitness Challenge, pledging another €100,000. So people can now keep running, rowing, or cycling for a great cause.

Mission accomplished! In just two weeks, nearly 1,000 athletes ran, rowed, or cycled 26,996 kilometers in response to Thomas Rabe’s international Twitter Fitness Challenge. Rabe’s pledged donation of €100,000 for the kilometers covered has been fully met. Yesterday, the donation was presented to Berlin’s Straßenkinder e.V. association in aid of street kids, who face even worse difficulties than before due to the coronavirus crisis and lockdown. But that’s not the end of the story: In view of the urgent needs of these children, and also the overwhelming response to his Fitness Challenge, Thomas Rabe has doubled the amount to be donated and has extended the campaign. So people can now keep running, rowing, or cycling to raise an additional €100,000 for the kids. So: Put those jogging shoes back on, jump on your bike, and/or grab those oars!

“The idea of helping the most vulnerable victims of the coronavirus crisis and combining this with the joy of sports and fitness has caught on,” says Rabe. “The fact that almost 27,000 kilometers was covered and the €100,000 target was met in such a short time is a cause for celebration for Straßenkinder e.V. as well as for every single Challenge participant. And because this result was achieved so much faster than I would have thought possible when we started out, I’d like to extend the campaign and will increase the donation to €200,000.” As Rabe emphasizes: “Even in normal times, the association does invaluable work with its efforts for homeless children and teens. Now, when many children are under increasing pressure at home and seek an escape by taking to the streets, its efforts are simply indispensable.”

Rabe is also happy that the synergy between the Challenge and Twitter is working so well, because the participants have been as active using the #SupportStrassenkinderBerlin hashtag as they are on the slopes or forest paths. Time, distance, speed, calorie consumption, heart rate, elevation profile – the trackers and speedometers which the Challenge participants use to proudly document their performance and thus their contribution on Twitter really leave no questions unanswered. Really? Because at least in one case, one really impressive metric was missing: age. On Monday, with a strong headwind in East Westphalia, Sonopress employee Monika Posdorfer rode 60.98 kilometers with her 90-year-old mother in 5 hours and 22 minutes. On a bicycle, not an e-bike. That’s not just two times €50 for Berlin’s street kids; it’s one of the most inspiring contributions to Thomas Rabe’s Fitness Challenge.

Many other participants have also turned the campaign into a true personal challenge over the past two weeks –sometimes completing new routes and disciplines every day to help. Several athletes even reached the individual maximum of €1,000 that Thomas Rabe had set. Incidentally, the same criteria apply to the extension as to the original challenge:

Running (indoor/outdoor): 10 km = €50, half marathon = €200, marathon = €500
Cycling (indoor/outdoor): 60 km = €50, 90 km = €200, 150 km = €500
Rowing (indoor): 10 km = €50, half marathon = €200, marathon = €500

Tweeting a picture to @ThomasRabe  (#SupportStrassenkinderBerlin), showing the person after completing the activity, along with a picture of the display on their fitness watch, rowing machine, or bicycle speedometer showing the route, is sufficient proof.